Dozens of artists call for end to Israel’s ‘systematic attacks’ on Gaza hospitals | Israel-Gaza war

Dozens of artists, including Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Ilana Glazer, joined doctors, human rights leaders and humanitarian organizations to call for the immediate resumption of medical care in Gaza. To the state of Israel and world leaders.

“Israel’s systematic attacks on hospitals and its unlawful blockade have collapsed Gaza’s healthcare system,” the letter shared exclusively with the Guardian reads. “The Israeli government, through its policies and military activities, has deliberately worsened the living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza, calculated to destroy them, and then denied them aid that could have saved them.”

First signatory on Monday letter She is the mother of five-year-old Hind Rajab from Gaza, who was killed by Israeli fire while waiting for a team of Palestinian medics whose ambulance was bombed while trying to reach her in January 2024. Her story was memorialized in Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, which was shortlisted for the Academy Award.

“Hind Rajab died not because help was impossible, but because he was denied it,” Ben Hania told the Guardian. Ben Hania met with Hind’s mother, Wesam Hamada, and signed the letter prepared by the non-profit group.

Other signatories include Brian Eno, Rosie O’Donnell and Morgan Spector. Israeli civil rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights are also among the human rights groups that signed the letter. It will be presented to UK and EU leaders at parliamentary meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The letter calls for “immediate, unconditional, unhindered and sustained humanitarian access to Palestine,” including the entry of medical and humanitarian personnel.

Israel recently banned dozens of aid organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), from working in Gaza and the West Bank on the grounds that they would not meet onerous registration requirements that the groups said would put their staff at risk. MSF says it provides one-fifth of Gaza’s hospital beds and support for one in three mothers during childbirth.

UN Human Rights Office It estimates that 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since Israel’s offensive on Gaza began in 2023. At least 1,722 healthcare workers were killed by the Israeli army during the two-year war. the group said. Many medical products, including wheelchairs and walkers, are banned from entry.

A panel of UN experts found that Israeli attacks on the industry and its workers “medicine” – the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system and one component of Israel’s larger campaign against Palestinians, which legal experts have called genocide.

Cogat, the agency that controls access to Gaza, said in response to the Guardian’s question that “the purpose of the registration process is to prevent Hamas from misusing aid.” US analysis No recent evidence has been found of Hamas systematically looting aid convoys. The Israeli military did not comment via broadcast.

The letter asks world leaders to “take urgent action” to restore and enable medical access for patients in Gaza and the West Bank, where increasing movement restrictions are affecting access to medical care.

more than 18,500 Palestinians are waiting Medical evacuation (MSF) from Gaza estimated In December. The humanitarian organization said at least 1,000 people had died waiting for care.

Chicago-based emergency room physician Dr. Thaer Gazawneh believes that Israel’s restrictions are designed to force Palestinians out of Gaza.

“[They] “They are making living conditions in Gaza so unbearable that people will have to be displaced again.”

Gazawneh volunteers in the West Bank said it had become nearly impossible to send emergency response teams because of Israeli checkpoints and the threat of arbitrary detention. According to the report, at least 384 healthcare workers were unlawfully detained by the Israeli army. Watch NGO Health Workers.

“This call for medical access is urgent because medicine and care are the bare minimum of humanity, and even when this is denied it puts every person on the planet at risk of being treated in the same way: inhumane,” Glazer told the Guardian. Glazer, a New York-based Jewish comedian and actor first known for his television series Broad City, has harshly criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and previously signed an agreement. letter He called for a ceasefire and the safe return of the hostages, as well as the 150 Jewish detainees.

Hind’s mother told the Guardian that the issue of medical access was particularly personal because her daughter dreams of becoming a doctor.

“Hind never bought ordinary toys or dolls like other children. She always chose doctor toys: a stethoscope, a plastic syringe, a small first aid kit. She would treat her dolls, caress them and promise them that everything would be okay,” Hamada said.

“Hind’s dream is no longer to become a doctor, but to provide Gaza children with doctors, hospitals, medicine and security.”